


Why Dylan Couldn’t Finish His Bad Car Game

by Merchant_3y3z



Category: Hypnospace Outlaw
Genre: 5 Things, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2020-01-25 20:08:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18581683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merchant_3y3z/pseuds/Merchant_3y3z
Summary: Five possible explanations for why Dylan Merchant couldn't finish his bad car game... and one possible explanation for why he actually did.





	Why Dylan Couldn’t Finish His Bad Car Game

**Author's Note:**

> I love Hypnospace Outlaw, but I felt like the premise of "brilliant programmer can't finish making a video game" needed further development, so here you go. Just so you know, the six vignettes take place in six different parallel universes, and most of them contradict each other.  
> And I love Dylan, too. I promise there's another fic coming with a fluffy, romanticized version of him. But he really is a self-centered jerk and sometimes you've gotta explore that...

**Possibility 1: Dylan couldn’t finish Outlaw because he kept adding new ideas to a plan that was already too big.**

Nobody else understands. Outlaw isn’t just a game, it’s going to be everything.

Dylan has it all planned out. It’s a whole new way to interface with Hypnospace. It’s called Outlaw because it started as a tool for Enforcers, a way to interest more people in the HSPD process. But soon, you’ll be able to do anything in Hypnospace using the car as an exciting, intuitive metaphor. It’s the next revolution in personal computing!

He just needs to get the HSPD part working. But as soon as he gets over this current sticking point, the rest ought to be easy. Sure, it doesn’t do much yet, but he’s got to be almost at the point when it all comes together. And once he gets the car chase implemented, maybe he can add a second dimension, with a curving road instead of a straight one…

That’s a great idea, actually. He’d have to rework some things, maybe even go back and rebuild some basics from scratch, but it’d be worth it! Sure, Sam and Adrian would be annoyed, but they don’t understand his vision. When it’s done, then they’ll see, and they’ll be sorry they ever doubted him.

Dylan closes his current file and opens a fresh one- blank for a fresh start on something bigger and better. He may be adding more work in the short term, but really he’s getting closer and closer to his ultimate vision!

He can’t wait until it actually starts to work. But any day now, it will, and it’s going to change the world.

 

**Possibility 2: Dylan couldn’t finish Outlaw because he was used to stealing other people’s work and calling it his own.**

Dylan sits back from his computer and groans in frustration. All he’s trying to do is implement a binary search tree. It shouldn’t be this hard!

Granted, every other time he’s done something like this, he’s been adapting someone else’s code. But there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be able to do it now! He’s smart- people have always said so. And smart people leverage all their resources, so of course he reuses code from wherever he can find it. Anyone who gets upset about it is way too possessive of their code.

He wouldn’t have made Tunebox, Netsettler, or Hypnospace if he hadn’t been willing to borrow ideas. And it’s clearly worked for him. It’s how all the best programmers do it, and Dylan is obviously one of the best. But here he is, hung up on some stupid little data structure. It’s a shame that nobody’s ever done anything like Outlaw. That’s the price of being a visionary, though-

-sometimes you actually have to do things yourself.

But he’ll figure it out. He has to. Quietly taking code is one thing, but he can’t exactly go ask someone to handhold him through this. He’d be a laughingstock, and besides, probably nobody here is anywhere near his level. Not even Roddy. What does Roddy know, anyway- he does stuff the slow way, by himself, and he insists that it’s actually better that way!

Dylan’s smart. He knows what he’s doing. So he’s only going to stare at the blinking cursor in his text file for a little longer. Maybe an hour. He’s sure he’ll figure this out before then.

 

**Possibility 3: Dylan couldn’t finish Outlaw because he was too occupied with being mad at everyone around him.**

Dylan storms into his office and opens up a folder full of Outlaw text files. He stares at the screen for several minutes before remembering which one he wanted to open, and then when he opens it, he can’t remember what he’d wanted to look at.

This is all Adrian’s fault. Adrian keeps interrupting his Outlaw work for pointless meetings, and he’s always piling on busywork, and when Dylan finally calls him out, he acts like he actually understands a single thing about how Hypnospace works.

But of course, Adrian had only pulled him aside because Sam was fussing about HSPD stuff again. He can’t understand why she takes it so seriously. Does she have nothing better to do than babysit people’s little soap-opera lives?

But the worst part is the interns. They’re a pack of gossipy idiots who pick up everything Adrian and Sam say, and whisper it behind Dylan’s back as though he can’t hear. He co-founded this company, he still does all the important stuff, and they should respect him. But no, it’s apparently too much to ask to be able to do that important stuff in peace.

Speaking of which, hadn’t he been trying to work on Outlaw? And what’s this file he has open?

 

**Possibility 4: Dylan couldn’t finish Outlaw because it was only ever an excuse to slack off.**

Dylan stares at his computer’s screensaver, snippets of music playing through his head. He can’t actually be composing at work- it would be too obvious that he’s not working. But he’s always been good at holding things in his mind, so when he gets home tonight he’ll record the song he’s thinking up right now.

Sam taps on his office door frame and he sits up straight, wiggling the mouse to wake up the screen. “Busy?” she asks in a way that sounds far too suspicious.

“Working on Outlaw, yeah,” he says. “It’s coming along really well.”

“Dylan, I want to see it finished, but I really think you need to prioritize-”

“Trust me, I’m prioritizing. And Outlaw is important, okay?”

Sam sighs, but walks away. Dylan tries to go back to his music, but he can’t shake the lingering sense of dread. Sooner or later, he needs to have something to show for all the time he’s supposedly spent on this game.

Making up a big, time-consuming project seemed like the easiest way to cut himself a break. Surely he’s done his share of work- he’s 21 and he’s invented two separate Internet browsers. Adrian’s stupid investors always want more from him, but if no one’s going to give him time off, he’ll have to find it his own way.

It’s starting to seem like maintaining this Outlaw thing is more trouble than it’s worth. But he’s going to relax for a while now, and worry about it later.

 

**Possibility 5: Dylan couldn’t finish Outlaw because someone hated him enough to sabotage it.**

Originally, it took re3koning_inc awhile to get into the Merchantsoft intranet, but now that they know how, it’s simple to get all the way to Dylan Merchant’s private files. Merchantsoft systems are full of holes, but of course they are- Dylan built them.

They open one of Dylan’s Outlaw files and go to work. They only change the smallest things- deleting a curly brace here, misspelling a variable name there. Just enough changes so that it’ll take Dylan hours to get it working again in the morning.

They’ve had spyware tracking Dylan’s edit history, and sure enough, he’s spending longer and longer everyday just cleaning up their little typos. They’re sure that he’s starting to question his own competence, maybe even his own sanity. It’s only a matter of time before he gives up on Outlaw altogether.

Ideally, when Dylan quits Outlaw, he’ll quit Merchantsoft completely, and someone more reasonable will step up. But if losing Outlaw just makes him do his real work, that’ll be enough. Honestly, just obliterating Dylan’s dreams will be enough.

The guy is determined, though. If anything, he’s been doubling down on Outlaw in the past few weeks.

But Dylan Merchant is going to crack. re3koning_inc will crack him, and when he shatters to pieces, maybe Hypnospace will finally improve.

 

**Bonus Possibility: Dylan did finish Outlaw, but it did its job a little too well.**

It’s done, and just in time for Y2K. Dylan looks over his code with pride- a little guilt, maybe, but it’s all for the best. Then he looks around him at the Merchantsoft offices, which he’s not going to miss at all.

Merchantsoft prides itself on uptime and availability, and when Outlaw crashes its servers during its biggest update ever, Dylan’s going to get hell for it. After months of erratic behavior, this will be the last straw that forces them to fire him, and that’s just what he wants. His contract, signed by his parents when he was just sixteen, makes it nearly impossible for him to quit, but if they fire him, then he’s free.

The program is rigged to disconnect everyone safely, so he doesn’t feel too bad for anyone who’s going to call up and scream at tech support because they can’t have connection exactly when they want it.

The clock rolls over from 11:59 to midnight. All across the country, people must be opening Outlaw, launching bandwidth-clogging processes that will grind servers to a halt. He smiles to himself-

An alarm goes off, and computers across the office spring to life. People come running upstairs, still clutching plastic cups and little plates from the company New Year’s party. They check the computers and start panicking even harder. Everyone’s suddenly yelling things, alarming things like “emergency protocol” and “failsafes” and “sabotage”-

Dylan’s mind races through memories of file after file of code and screech to a halt on a tiny, stupid bug that he never fixed. He figured the situation would never come up, but-

No-

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
